COEUR d'ALENE - D. Patrick Jones had some good news and some bad about Kootenai County's economy, and more still that was open to perspective.
Like how the county's average annual wage in 2011 was $32,647, roughly $3,000 below state and national averages.
Bad news? Maybe not.
“When you have lower wages, you're going to recruit businesses looking for that workforce,” said Jones, executive director at the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University. “(The workforce) doesn't get paid a lot, but businesses might hire more people.”
Also, county residents living below the federal poverty level ranged from 9.4 percent to 14.6 percent between 2000 and 2010, mostly below state and federal benchmarks.
“You might be low income, but a lot of people are low income,” Jones said, addressing the crowd at the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce's Upbeat Breakfast at The Coeur d'Alene Resort on Tuesday.More here. Alecia Warren, Cda Press
Do you read Jones's report as good news, bad news or mixed?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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